Araqchi: Astana Process on Syria making progress

Araqchi said in a televised speech on Tuesday, that the Astana negotiations have been going on for  over two years and Astana talks resumed through active presence of Iran, Turkey and Russia, he said.

Alongside Astana talks, 'we witnessed resumption of Geneva talks' in which western countries failed to invite Iran but the result of such negotiations did not bear fruit, Araqchi was quoted by IRNA.

Geneva talks turned to be a center for those countries leaving destructive role in Syria and they spared no efforts to support terrorists, he said.

Geneva talks was under supervision of the UN, but is now inactive and it is for long time we hear no news about them, Araqchi said.

Presently Syria is experiencing a very sensitive period as terrorists have been uprooted in different parts of Syria through close cooperation countries forming Astana meeting and Syrian government and army and all have sheltered in Idlib city, he said.

Terrorists have been merged with the civilians in the city of Idlib and use people as human shield, he said.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in Aug. 30 that consequences of the West’s potential aggression against Syria will be inevitable and this will deal a heavy blow both to the settlement and global stability.

More than 330,000 people have been killed in Syria and millions have been driven from their homes since the conflict began in March 2011, and the infrastructure of the country destroyed.

In April 2017, thousands of Kefraya and al-Foua residents were bussed out to government-held areas in a swap that granted, in exchange, safe passage to hundreds of people living in two militant-held towns near Damascus, Madaya and Zabadani.

About 1.2 million Syrian refugees have returned to their homes since September 2015.

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